Canine and Human Rabies in Cameroon

.Keywords: Rabies, canine, human, distribution, control, Cameroon. This paper is a retrospective review of recorded rabies and antirabies activities in Cameroon from 1990 to 1999 to determine the current state of rabies in both dogs and humans. Rabies and antirabies activities were recorded every year in Cameroon through out the 10-year study period with the highest values observed in the Centre, Littoral and West provinces which are the most urban places. A total of 38,784 suspected rabid dogs were quarantined and 129,266 pets were vaccinated against rabies. About 1.86% of the quarantined dogs died during observation while 0.85% of them were confirmed positive for rabies. The mean annual numbers of quarantined dogs and dogs that died during quarantine in the country were 3933 + 1503 and 73 + 74 respectively. However, mean annual values of 1293 + 2173, 33 + 22 and 43 + 13 were also obtained for canine antirabies vaccination, confirmed canine rabies cases and human deaths due to rabies respectively. Although, the distributions of these follow the urban/rural nature of the country, human rabies seem to be more in the rural areas contrary to canine rabies which is more urban in nature. Also, poor accessibility to the main diagnostic laboratories affected the number of confirmed canine rabies cases recorded from the various provinces. Other factors which are obstacles to effective antirabies activities in Cameroon were also discussed Trop. Vet. Vol. 20(3) 2002: 162-168